The twenty-first century has witnessed an exponential growth in the amount of digitized information that people and companies generate and store. This information is composed of electronic data that is typically stored on magnetic surfaces such as disks, which contain small regions that are sub-micrometer in size and are capable of storing individual binary pieces of information.
Because of the large amount of data that many entities generate, the data storage industry has turned to network-based storage systems. These types of storage systems may include at least one storage server that forms or is part of a processing system that is configured to store and to retrieve data on behalf of one or more entities. The data may be stored and retrieved as storage objects, such as blocks and/or files.
One system that is used for storage is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system. In the context of NAS, a storage server operates on behalf of one or more clients to store and to manage file-level access to data. The files may be stored in a storage system that includes one or more arrays of mass storage devices, such as magnetic or optical disks or tapes. Additionally, this data storage scheme may employ Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology.
Another system that is used for storage is a Storage Area Network (SAN). In a SAN system, typically a storage server provides clients with block-level access to stored data, rather than file-level access to it. However, some storage servers are capable of providing clients with both file-level access and block-level access.
Regardless of whether one uses NAS or SAN, all industries that generate data must consider the cost of storing and retrieving that data. Therefore, there is a need for new technologies for economically storing and retrieving data.